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Thread: WARNING: DO NOT BUY ZITO WHEELS - Scammed by Tony

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2021
    Location
    Europe
    Posts
    2
    My Cars
    2018 BMW X5

    Exclamation WARNING: DO NOT BUY ZITO WHEELS - Scammed by Tony

    DO NOT BUY ZITO WHEELS - as the title says we were scammed by Anthony Amato, AKA Tony.

    We are previous Zito Wheels customer, but only bought the wheels in Europe (Import from Taiwan). This time around we could not get the wheel specification for our vehicles. So, we were recommended to contact Zito Wheels USA. We were contacted by Anthony Amato, AKA Tony. He didn’t respond to the email we sent directly to their company email-address, but for unknown reason he rather contacted me on WhatsApp. We then agreed on ordering (April 8th, 2021) the wheels to our specifications. The payment was transferred by bank wire to Tony’s personal/business account. He did not accept PayPal. So, we assumed as Zito Wheels USA is worldwide company, and have many followers all around the world, it should be no issue (BIG mistake)

    We were mistaken. Tony acknowledge/confirmed that he received the agreed amount of $3000 from Bank of America. We have written proof and documentation by messages and bank confirmation that Tony did received the amount we agreed on (see the attached pictures from the conversation). We were looking forward to receiving the wheels as we had planned a car and coffee event in June/July. But sadly, and disappointingly Tony stopped answering our calls and messages completely. The last massage he sent was an excuse that they had major issues and delays with their machine and powder coating facility. Which is completely incorrect as other customer don’t report this issue in the States. So to conclude, we have been waiting for approximately 4 months now, and Tony has stopped responding completely, and we have been patiently waiting, but unfortunately we have to accept that we have been scammed by Zito Wheels USA and Tony.

    Tony never intended to ship the wheels to Europe. This is unfortunate as we were loyal Zito customer for years, and previous had good experience, until we started dealing with Tony. The Irony in this situation is that Tony is promoting one of my cars on their Instagram-page with Zito wheels, but simultaneous scamming us. Finally, we will be reaching out to other organization on all social media to create awareness of this case and how Tony is misleading and taking advantage of paying customer. In the last few days we have been in contact with at least five other Zito customer (from both Europe and US) who have been scammed like us. Same pattern, Tony receive the agreed amount, makes excuses, lets you wait for a long time and then stops the communication. We will be updating this post as the process continue. BTW: Tony/Zito disabled the reviews on FB-page and deleted all negatives review from other customer. Most likely he because he clearly can’t handle the truth or any form of criticism. Fortunately we have all the backup of the conversations and uploaded pictures. Please see the attached pictures and documentation from our case.


    Unfortunately, we can’t seem to attach the pictures from the documentation/conversation history between us and Tony/Zito Wheels.
    So, the next best solution will be to look at the following forum link to have a complete understanding of this case.

    https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/warning-do-not-buy-zito-wheels-scammed-by-tony.6128/

    Short timeline recap/summary for the readers:

    April 8, 2021:
    We contacted Tony (Anthony Amato) and Zito Wheels USA to order the ZF15 wheels.

    April 9, 2021: We transfer by bank wire the agreed amount of $3000 to Tony’s (Anthony Amato) account – Bank of America.

    April 10, 2021: Tony (Anthony Amato) claims wheels will be finished approximately between 3-4 weeks.

    April 13, 2021: Tony (Anthony Amato) confirms that he has received the agreed amount ($3000) and wheels are being machined to our selected specification.

    May 9, 2021: 4 weeks after ordering, we ask Tony (Anthony Amato) about progress regarding finishing the wheels. Tony (Anthony Amato) claims the wheels are getting finished soon and he will contact them (unknown) on Monday (May 10, 2021).

    May 18, 2021: We request again status and timeframe about our prepaid wheels.

    May 19, 2021: Tony (Anthony Amato) claims the wheels will be shipping end of next week. Which means by May 28, 2021. We have now patiently been waiting for 7 weeks.

    June 1, 2021: We request again status and shipping information about our prepaid wheels. Tony do not respond for another 8 days. We even send an email to Tony (Anthony Amato) at their company email-address. We try several times to call Tony (Anthony Amato) on his company phone number, but no response.

    June 9, 2021: Tony (Anthony Amato) finally responds. He is calming that they are having major technical difficulties.

    June 11, 2021: We request again status and shipping information about our prepaid wheels. Tony (Anthony Amato) respond (you can read his statement and claims in the previously posted screenshot). Tony (Anthony Amato) claims that latest shipping date for any order cannot be later than June 28, 2021. We patently wait, again.

    June 28, 2021: We again request status and shipping information about our prepaid wheels. Tony (Anthony Amato) would now not respond to our WhatsApp messages, iMessage, email and phone calls.

    Going from wheels being machined and ready to be shipped – to wheels never have been existed. Everybody who can read this report and understand the context from our conversations with Tony (Anthony Amato) can clearly see the strong suspicion towards defining this case as a fraud/scam. Next our legal teams gets involved, and this is the first time we try to locate other customer who have dealt with Tony (Anthony Amato) and Zito Wheels USA. We have communication with five other customers, and we start collecting testimonies and communication history/records.

    July 5, 2021: Thanks to one of the customers our team had contacted previously, we received legit information and suggestion to contact Mr. Eric Peng, Zito Taiwan. So, we wrote a lengthy email to Mr. Eric, explaining the situation and the lack of communication from Tony (Anthony Amato). We also sent all the documentation and conversation history collected so far. Another significant point here is that shortly after this communication happened the review/rating system on Zito Wheels page was disabled, and the reviews dating 6-12 month back, also before we came in the picture, was also removed.

    July 6, 2021: Mr. Eric Peng replied the day after and said he will investigate it when he would return to California. Unfortunately, we never did get a response.
    But we are almost sure that he communicated with Tony (Anthony Amato) as he suddenly, out of nowhere, replied to our email for the first time in 9 days (July 6, 2021). We replied, requesting status on the wheels or we would be requiring a refund. Complain regarding this case was also submitted (July 5th, 2021) with Better Business Bureau. We gave Tony (Anthony Amato) until next week to answers or give us some update.


    Below is the latest update and development in this case:

    July 10, 2021:
    Tony (Anthony Amato) answer us for the first time on WhatsApp since July 11, 2021 (4 weeks later). He explains his reasons and claiming he has never not fulfilled an order and so on. He apologies for the situation and waiting for valid tracking number and so on. But here is the significant part of the case. Tony (Anthony Amato) only contacted us after the knowledge of this thread and the review/reports we have been posting regarding this case.

    So, for the first time Tony (Anthony Amato) is communicating with us through WhatsApp, to our big surprise from July 10, 2021 – July 14, 2021. In our opinion if he had put the same amount of effort into actually fulfilling our prepaid order, rather writing to us about this and that, perhaps we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place. It is what it is. We have also opted out of respect (what little is left) not to post the complete conversation between us and Tony (Anthony Amato) from July 10, 2021 – July 14, 2021. Let’s just say it would not put Tony (Anthony Amato) and Zito Wheels in a good light. But then again, we won’t hesitate to post those conversation publicly if he doesn’t keep his word in the last message sent July 16, 2021. In short, the conversation is about accusation without any basis, dragging out the time without giving us any updates on the wheels and shipping information. We also stated we will only, when upon receiving our prepaid wheels, delete and withdraw our reviews/reports + forum threads. As we told Tony (Anthony Amato) we will also post pictures of the wheels as proof of evidence and finally closing this case once and for all. The burden of proof rests solely on Tony (Anthony Amato) and Zito Wheels now. If he fails, disappear and ignore us again, then the car community will for sure know what to call this case.

    July 14, 2021: Lastly, we sent Tony (Anthony Amato) and Zito Wheels a final notice to provide us with a delivery date/tracking information within
    Friday (July 16, 2021). And that the next communication will be through our legal team. Below is a screenshot from Tony (Anthony Amato) last response. The readers here can make up their own mind how to interpret this message. Tony (Anthony Amato) is now claiming that he will ship our prepaid wheels within 30 days (August 15, 2021). Now Tony (Anthony Amato) and Zito Wheels have the golden opportunity to prove to us and the rest of the world, now for the third time, or was it fourth time, lost the count, that he intent to fulfil the prepaid order.

    Do we believe his claim that he will ship the wheels to Europe after 18-19 weeks from first ordering? Only time will tell.

    We will keep you guys updated on this case and will definitely be posting again soon, depending on if we actually receive the wheels, either pictures of the wheels or something completely different.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2021
    Location
    Europe
    Posts
    2
    My Cars
    2018 BMW X5
    Update: As stated previously Tony (Anthony Amato) and Zito Wheels removed all reviews on their FB-page and deleted all negatives reviews from other customer. Most likely because Tony clearly could not handle the truth or any form of criticism. So, 4-5 weeks ago when we suspected scam/fraud when Tony (Anthony Amato) and Zito Wheels started ignoring our messages and phone calls, we wrote our review and experience on Google review. This was the only option as everything else was disabled.

    But now/today, Tony (Anthony Amato) and Zito Wheels, have disabled the Google review system as well, and completely disappeared from Google maps.
    As promised, will updating next week. Don’t expect our pre-paid wheels to be sent (
    Last date: August 15, 2021) or any form of refund.

    Check the link above for picture/attachment (Deleted google review)

    Few weeks back we also submitted a complaint with BBB (Better Business Bureau).
    Clearly from the response we have received from BBB, Tony (Anthony Amato) and Zito Wheels are ignoring them as well.

    Check the link above for picture/attachment (Email BBB)


    At this point its’s looks more likely to confirm this case as a scam. We will be updating next week.



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